ch361-ch380 · 361-ch361

Chapter 361: Catching a Cold

"Huh? The goddess? ...No? Mizuki? You're Mizuki? Whoops—this one I might not be able to beat, hmm? But the other way around, the little boy wouldn't stand a chance. No, never mind—just talking to myself. Ohohoho! ...Say, could you let me step on your foot for a moment? Yes, yes—grind it right in."

The police arrived soon after, and we explained that the men couldn't be let out of the dungeon.

And while we were being questioned inside the dungeon, Sato-san showed up.

Apparently another new dungeon had appeared nearby, and he'd been dispatched to hold that one.

After that, Shiraishi-san came from the branch, and the man who'd taken the 'Rocket Kick' pulled through.

We tried to have her treat the men with their bent-up limbs too, but the police stopped us—said it wasn't necessary.

Part of it was that I'd acted on a '【Heal】-it-later' assumption, so maybe I did go a bit overboard.

I'd also gone crack, crack on the one Aikawa had downed, just in case—so in the end, the man who ate the 'Rocket Kick' came out the least injured of the lot.

Aikawa got treated as well, and her swollen face is back to normal.

"Thank goodness, Natsuki. 【Heal】 is amazing, huh."

"No, this is where you go 'that face is AWFUL! Heal, quick!'—isn't that how it's supposed to flow?"

"It looks better than before, honestly. Practically plastic surgery!"

"WHAT did you say—!? Maybe you two should get 【Healed】 too!"

We bickered back and forth, and at last the three of us had our smiles back.

Aikawa's beating had been so bad we'd all been holding a wake, after all.

I'm just glad she's okay.

"Brrr."

Coming out of the rain-fall dungeon, our drenched bodies hit the winter wind and chilled us more than expected.

But that's when the problem cropped up.

"No, as I said, we will be taking custody of them here. You've already been briefed, I trust? Setting the suspects aside, adventurers are handled by the Association. Any further contact will go through us as well."

A staffer who looked to be from HQ stopped our group from riding in the patrol car.

Me and Soushi, that is.

The four girls are changing clothes at Mizuki's house.

There should have been arrangements made in advance, but adventurers actually trading blows with criminals was apparently outside everyone's assumptions.

C-cold.

Could I maybe stay inside the dungeon until the talking is over?

A patrol car would've been fine too, but......

While all this was going on, Mizuki's father came home, and the Association people and my group got locked out of the property.

The dungeon itself belongs to the state, apparently, but the land can't simply be taken from its owner.

If the landowner says no, you can't even approach.

So it looks like this dungeon can't be surveyed for a while.

Judging by how Mizuki's father talks, this is going to fester into a court case.

I wonder how long a trial takes?

The next new-dungeon appearance is five years away.

If this isn't settled by then, the dungeon will vanish—no people coming and going means no reason for it to stay.

What a waste. It was such a rare rain-fall dungeon, too.

"You two will wait at the Chiba branch."

Told this by the HQ staffer, we moved to the branch with Shiraishi-san.

The police will leave a few people here anyway, so no real escort should be needed.

We stayed soaked the whole way to the branch.

Even at the branch we couldn't enter the dungeon, so Shiraishi-san went in and brought our changes of clothes, and we finally got to change.

"So? Why were you there?"

And now I'm being interrogated by a scowling branch manager.

Here we go again, huh.

Not just me—Soushi-kun's in it too.

Actually, Soushi's being questioned by someone else.

The branch staff are swamped with the new-dungeon response and mostly out in the field, so I don't mind the branch manager joining an interrogation—but why is the branch manager on MY case?

Isn't this unfair?

Incidentally, Kasumi-san is apparently at Narita.

A 'Dungeon Gate' appeared on the airport grounds, and the response there was left to Kasumi-san.

Also, Shiraishi-san mentioned earlier that one appeared near a certain amusement park.

Akane-san went to that one, apparently.

I learned this afterward, but this time the dungeons seem to have appeared in relatively crowded places.

Until now they'd shown up in mountains and seas as well—but those dungeons vanished, and new 'Dungeon Gates' appeared where the people are.

The dungeons, it seems, want humans to use them.

"When you blacked out during the memory treatment, you were told in a dream to go to that place, right?"

"A dream? Another story whose truth can't be confirmed, hm. What am I even supposed to report...... Ah, that's right—word came in just now. Your friend apparently found one of the culprits' accomplices. The driver in the car. The police called it in: secured. Another good deed of yours."

I'd love for them to arrest that 'friend' of mine while they're at it.

"This one too, you mean? I did barge into a new dungeon without permission, so—is there any punishment for that?"

Normally, license revocation......

"Given the circumstances, no. You may be praised, but you won't be punished. HQ makes the call, but I'll put in a word so that nothing works against you. ......So answer honestly."

Ohh, lucky.

No Hokkaido posting for me, apparently.

"Yeees, sir."

"Short answers! Honestly. Now—the criminals whose limbs you broke. How strong were they?"

And in the end, I got scolded anyway.

"One of them was a Triple with an upper job. Stronger, I'd say, than the big-sister adventurers who moved over from HQ. Then one Single with 【Storage】. The remaining two seemed like jobless Level 1s."

"A Triple...... and you beat it? Did you tell anyone?"

Ah......

"I told the police too, but they just snorted at me."

They gave me a "yeah, yeah," clearly not believing a word of it.

"This could become a serious matter. This 【Storage】 holder—did you see them? Do you remember which one it was?"

Three guns came out of this, so I'd say it's already serious......

Our holding upper jobs is supposed to be a secret, after all.

The branch manager has probably noticed.

He's probably agonizing over what to report to HQ, though.

Could I still wrangle it into "the three of us beat them together"?

Too late—"I kicked the one using the evasion skill" is already with the police.

"About the 【Storage】—the girl who was with Aikawa said they overheard that conversation before we arrived. I overheard her telling the police. The police must have a handle on which one he is. I remember his face, too."

While waiting for Shiraishi-san, I'd overheard the black gal talking with the police.

Something like: without the man Aikawa downed first waking up, the work couldn't proceed, and the Triple had come along as his escort.

Judging by the situation, he's the 【Storage】 holder—that's what the police said, too.

"Even more serious, then. So there's an organization behind them, capable of sending people like that......"

The branch manager sank into thought—then a phone call came, and that day's interrogation was over.

And then Soushi and Sato-san caught colds.